


A Different Life

by Summertime_Poet



Series: FFXV fanfics [7]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: (sorta) - Freeform, Gen, Happy Ending, Temporary Character Death, changing the prophecy, emphasis on temporary only though, sads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-25 04:33:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21810118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Summertime_Poet/pseuds/Summertime_Poet
Summary: It’s not long before Noctis makes a decision.He has grown even more tired since he learned about the prophecy. He never told anyone he knows.
Series: FFXV fanfics [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1022094
Kudos: 27





	A Different Life

**Author's Note:**

> Part No. 15 of my Daily Fanfic Chocolates calendar :D
> 
> This started out as a headcanon, but I liked the idea so much that I couldn’t not turn it into a fic.
> 
> Please enjoy! ^_^

Noctis is ten years old when Ardyn Izunia visits Lucis and the Citadel.

Noctis had only days before found out about the prophecy – he had found a book, a book that shouldn't actually exist, because nobody ever wrote it, but it seems like someone is trying to give him a choice.

But how much of a choice does he have when it means growing up knowing he will die in twenty years?

Knowing everyone else will suffer even more till the day comes?

Knowing he will die a king, his father dead and several of those closest to him possibly as well?

He hates the thought that they would rather die than have him die before them, his young heart can’t bear it.

Ardyn himself asks the gods why this boy he only met will have to die eventually. There’s still time, plenty of it for the boy and little for him, but he doesn't want to kill a kid. It feels wrong.

He gets no reply though; the gods are gone. They wouldn't have replied to him either way, but little does he know they are gone because they are on their way.

It’s not long before Noctis makes a decision.

He has grown even more tired since he learned about the prophecy. He never told anyone he knows.

So he sets up a trap.

(Ignis would be proud if knowing its purpose wouldn't agonize him so much. He has taught already Noctis so much in the few years they've known each other, and resourcefulness was probably never intended to be used like that. Noctis wrote an apology letter, with an extra passage addressed at Iggy to say he is sorry, honestly.)

In the end, Ardyn (just after a phone call to Iedolas, telling him he'd return to Niflheim first thing in the morning) stumbles over the thread and falls–

Onto Noctis. And the sword secured safely behind the little crown prince.

*

Regis feels like he is dying even faster with every passing day and the entire Citadel – all of Lucis – is weeping for their lost prince.

It takes them a whole week to notice that the starscourge is gone entirely.

*

It is a year after the day of the little prince's funeral.

There is silence throughout the Citadel; even Regis’s crying can’t be heard, his sobs muffled by anything he can find.

He is feeling physically younger with every passing day, despite of his wrecked emotional state; his hair even started to regain some of its long lost color now that the wall is down. (Even Niflheim had stopped their attacks, and there were talks about a lasting peace going on these days.)

He doesn’t say it out loud but he feels not like a gift has been given to him, but rather that it has been taken from him.

Time passes and the day goes on, but no one would have been able to predict what happens mere minutes after Regis entered the throne room.

The door, the grand entrance door, swings open and it crashes against the wall, the guards unable to catch it, they are too afraid.

There is a man standing in the hall as Regis is called, and he comes running as fast as he can, Clarus in tow.

There is a man standing in the hall and it's Noctis and he is older, his hair longer and he is wearing a beard and there's age in his eyes.

There is a man standing in the hall who sacrificed his life at the age of ten, shortening the duration of a prophecy, and in exchange for his voluntarily given life the gods took only twenty years from him and sent him back home.

There is a man standing in the hall who is holding onto his father who cries in pain that is beginning to fade into relief, and he promises everything will be alright from now on.

He speaks the truth.

He tells young (teenage by now, but still young compared to himself) Ignis, Gladio and even Prompto, whom to find it took a long time, one day, much later:

“They showed me what it would have been like, if I had followed along with the prophecy. The adventures we would have gone on.”

He pauses.

He thinks: It's sad to have lost long friendships that could have been- but he'd never change his decision if given the opportunity, not in a million years.

He looks down as three younger hands rest on his.

"We will always be your friends, Noctis," Ignis tells him. Gladio and Prompto nod in agreement and Noctis allows himself one of his first smiles since he came back.

Some things can't be changed, even when one defies a prophecy. In fact, sometimes, they eventually turn for the better.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it! ^_^ As always, you can also find this fic on my fanfic blog, patsdrabbles over on tumblr. ^_^
> 
> Feedback is, no matter how short, super appreciated and bound to make my entire week! <333


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